Have you ever watched a suspenseful movie before? The kind when an unsuspecting girl walks into a scary room where you, as the viewer, know she shouldn’t go? The music gets dark as the camera focuses in and she walks slowly toward certain calamity.

Did you sit there, holding your breath, just waiting…waiting for it all to go south? Your pulse is racing; chest is tightening, anticipating the moment where the innocent girl and the protagonist collide? Waiting for the moment when the worst, you are certain will arrive, has indeed come?

Have you ever felt this way in your own world?

I know I have.

For a good chunk of my life there has been a lot of bad. There has been sickness, death, tragedy, broken lives and broken dreams. If I’m being honest there is one byproduct of all the pain I’ve experienced that seeks to rear its ugly head every chance it gets.

Anticipating the worst.

My heart, oh my beautiful heart. Here to love and protect me at all costs. It does incredibly at its job, only in my case, maybe a little too good of a job.

It can feel as if it’s a little too weary. A little too on-guard. A little too eager to protect itself. To protect me.

Is that a bad thing? Not completely.

The bad part is when my heart protects me to the point where I anticipate the bad instead of believing for the good.

In life often times what you believe in your heart will come to pass, tends to manifest itself.

If I believe my day is going to be terrible, it tends to be.

If I believe I’ll never lose that excess weight, I tend to never do.

If I believe a relationship is going to end badly, it typically does.

Our thoughts are powerful. What we believe about ourselves and our future is too.

In sports, do you know what the difference is between the good athletes and the great ones many times? The great ones are simply the ones who believed they could.

Belief is a powerful weapon. Yet if we use the weapon of belief, as a tool of dread, that power then gives birth to our greatest fears. And we see that very fear rise and come to life.

When we BELIEVE the worst is yet to come, we are giving that belief power.

So what now instead if I believe the best is yet to come? Will I give power to that truth? I am here to say the answer is a resounding yes.

For two years after losing my spouse, life was bleak. I had much pain and woundedness. I could barely see weeks down the road, much less years. I had to fight for every ounce of hope I could muster, because life seemed so very cruel. I didn’t believe good things were ahead, because life had proven to me over and over again that wasn’t the case.

Around year three, something started to shift.

A hope began to arise, that goodness and mercy could indeed follow me. That I didn’t have to believe the rest of my life would be one calamity after the next. I could dare to believe, that for I Sarah Rodriguez, goodness was just around the bend.

Was it always easy to believe those truths? No way. In fact many times I had to tell myself mantras, out loud, over and over again.

“Goodness will follow you.”

"You have nothing to fear."

“The best is yet to come to you.”

I said it repeatedly until a small part of me actually started to believe it. That was all I needed.

That seed grew into a tree that blossomed into a yielder of fruit.

There is no doubt in my mind that my shift towards believing in goodness, opened my heart to the point where love could re-enter my world, changing me forever.

It began in my head, became truth to my heart, creating a life-altering shift that started simply...with belief.

Belief that goodness would come. Belief that my life wasn’t over but was merely just beginning.

Once I started to open my heart to belief, it was opened to the manifestation of that belief. And when I least expected it, goodness sprang to life.

We have the power of choice. We have the power to choose to believe for brighter days ahead.

You have the power within you to determine what your future will be. It doesn’t mean it will be perfection, but it does mean that even in imperfection you will be lead to a greater good. Even if there are dark moments, overall the light will shine through. Your best years are yet to be lived. Believe it, friend.

Your story isn’t over yet. I repeat your story isn’t over yet. If you are still breathing and moving, there are still chapters to be written.

Sarah Rodriguez Rhodes

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Ellis Update: Today was a hard morning, guys. We got to the hospital & things just felt all wrong. I don’t know how to explain it other than that. Then the anesthesiologist had issues with some secretions Ellis was having that we were told amplified her risk during the surgery while under anesthesia. Given the past things we’ve walked through, we just decided it wasn’t a risk we were at all willing to take. So we made the decision to go home, re-group & do the surgery another day. Since the surgery is elective we had our medical teams full support in this decision. We are home now & doing well. This wasn’t an easy decision to make. For months we’ve prepared mentally, emotionally, schedule-wise, financially etc for this day. But we have to be lead by peace. And if those giving her medical care also weren’t completely at peace, it just wasn’t the right time, for whatever reason. I don’t always understand the “why” but I won’t always & I’m ok with that. We appreciate your prayers & promise to keep you informed of when her surgery will be in the coming months. Also, the day wasn’t a complete loss...Ellis did get to hang with the cute hospital dog-so at least that part was a win ☺️ Looking for some kind of humor-it’s been a rough day.

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